Colm O'Regan: 'It didn’t do me harm - and so your children should do it too'

"I once got a summer job as a human scarecrow. I was brought to a set of six fields to cycle around them and scare pigeons who had stopped giving a shite about the gas banger..."

‪Comedian and Irish Examiner columnist Colm O'Regan pictured in Cork. Pic: Denis Minihane.

There comes a time in every columnist's life where they end up writing: “It didn’t do me ANY harm and so your children should do it too.”

It could be anything: wallpaper on school books, margarine in your sandwiches, chilblains. I don’t know what comes over us. Maybe we see young people enjoying themselves without consulting us and they don’t look grateful enough for the sacrifices we made or the interest rates we paid.